Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Anr. v. Anand Arya & Ors.
Background
The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) had built the "Millennium Bus Depot" near the Nizamuddin Bridge on land that, under Delhi's Master Plan 2021, was designated as "River Water Body," where construction is not permitted. In a 2012 public-interest writ petition, the Delhi High Court had given the authorities six months to get the Master Plan amended, failing which the depot was to be removed, but more than three years later, the Master Plan remained unchanged, a related contempt petition was pending over an unmet undertaking to vacate by 31.10.2014, and the High Court finally dismissed DTC's application for further extension of time, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court reviewed the long history of the dispute, including the public purpose served by the depot (serving roughly ten lakh commuters daily and around 2,000 DTC employees), the partial progress made on alternate land allotment by the DDA, and a recent National Green Tribunal order directing a fresh, authoritative demarcation of the Yamuna floodplain that could eventually show whether the depot site genuinely falls within it. Balancing these facts, the Court held that ordering immediate demolition at this stage would be premature given that the floodplain-identification exercise was already underway, but also made clear that the authorities' repeated failure to amend the Master Plan could not be indefinitely excused. It disposed of the appeals by granting DTC one further year to either get the Master Plan amended or shift the depot, explicitly stating that no further extension would be granted on any ground.
Lesson Learnt
Even where continued operation of important public infrastructure provides real public benefit, courts will enforce statutory planning requirements (like a Master Plan) and will grant only a final, time-bound opportunity to regularize non-compliant construction before requiring removal: repeated extensions are not open-ended.